Yet Another Night of the Living Dead
Disclaimer: My cat made off with it, and now I can't find it. Sorry!
Chapter 2: Arrival!
Avengers Mansion
Jennifer Walters, the teenage Amazon powerhouse known as the Sensational She-Hulk, walked into the Avengers Mansion's living room, where she noticed Spencer Burton, the armored speedster known as Sonic Blue, watching TV. He was holding a bowl of popcorn and a glass of soda.
"Whatcha watching?" Jennifer asked, leaning over the couch.
"Basketball." Spencer answered. "Miami Heat versus the Houston Rockets. You know, I really wish Cincinnati would get its own basketball team. I mean, we got the Reds in baseball, and the Bengals in football, but no NBA team. It's embarrassing."
"The Heat, huh?" Jennifer winced. "Aren't you worried that Razor will be mad at you for watching the Heat? He's been on a tear since LeBron made that announcement." Spencer rolled his blue eyes.
"Jenny, I'm from Cincinnati. What do I care about LeBron James deciding to dump Cleveland? That's his problem. Although I do have to admit, I would love to see the reaction if the Heat play in Cleveland. It's going to be nasty."
"Hey..." Jenny pointed at the screen, blinking. "Is that Razor?" Spencer gaped at the screen.
"Yeah, that is him. What's he doing on the-Oh God, he's going for LeBron." A crashing could be heard from the TV. "Oh, that tackle looked brutal."
"Man, he is beating him mercilessly, isn't he?" Jenny winced at the screen as the sounds of a beating and Razor's fighting and cursing erupted from the screen.
"YOU TRAITOR!" Razor roared. "YOU LYING PUNK! COME BACK HERE AND TAKE YOUR BEATING, YOU LITTLE-!" The television continued to show Kid Razor, Cleveland's local superhero, laying a smackdown on the former Olympian, and NBA All-Star. "THIS IS FOR CLEVELAND, PUNK! YOU LYING TRAITOROUS PIECE OF GARBAGE!"
"That will hurt." Jenny winced. Spencer sighed and shook his head.
"This doesn't surprise me."
Redstone, Illinois
The Southside Misfits' tour bus rolled into the small town of Redstone. Redstone was a small town in central Illinois, around 75 miles outside of Chicago, the Southside Misfits' traditional stomping grounds.
"Tell the other kids we're almost there." Raven told Jason.
"Sure thing, Raven." Jason nodded, unbuckling his seat and leaving the cab. Meanwhile, inside the bus, Jenni Starr and Vicki Stephens were watching a horror movie. Well, Vicki was watching the movie. Jenni was reading a book, trying to ignore the film. She was also clutching a teddy bear.
"Vicki, please." Jenni tried to concentrate on her book. "This movie is scary!"
"That's the point of a horror film, Jen." Vicki smirked, scarfing down some popcorn. "They're supposed to scare you." Jenni sighed.
"Fine." The blonde sighed, closing her book and getting up. "Me and Barry are going somewhere else where we can read without screams in the background." She started to leave the room. "Come on, Barry." Jenni mumbled to her bear. "Let's go get away from the crazy lady and her scary movies." Vicki chuckled and shook her head.
"No stomach. Girl has no stomach for these things." The dark-haired mutant scarfed down some popcorn, chuckling to herself. A crunching sound could be heard from the screen. "Ohhhhhh!" She whooped. "Wow! Jenni, you missed it! He just ripped this guy's arm off! And now he's eating it!" She turned her head and saw Johnny B and Mike staring at her strangely. "What?"
"...you really got horror films on the brain, you know that?" Mike blinked.
"What?" Vicki blinked. "I love horror films. I always have."
"What're you watching?" Johnny B asked.
"Attack of the Chainsaw Man 3. This one is a classic." Vicki explained. "This one had that guy in it. Y'know, the guy who was in that movie about that reactor and the rabid horses?"
"Oh yeah, I know that guy." Johnny B nodded. Meanwhile, Raven was getting a call. The Native American woman put on a headset.
"Talk to me."
"Hello, Raven. How's it going?" General Hawk's voice greeted on the other end.
"Hello, General." Raven smiled. "How're things at the Pit?"
"Alright. Just kicked Althea and Todd out of Cover Girl's Wolverine tank."
"Caught them making out in it again?" Raven smirked.
"Yeah. Listen, I'm calling you as well as the West Coast crew." Hawk announced.
"Is something wrong, General?"
"Well...remember that conflagration you and the Southside kids had with that sorcerer some time back?1" Hawk asked.
"Yeah, why?" Raven blinked. "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, there is." Hawk answered. "The Necronomicon. It's vanished." Raven's eyes widened.
"What?" She yelped. "Hawk, I told you! You had to find a way to destroy the damn thing!"
"I had Airtight try to destroy it, but he had no luck." Hawk explained. "The blasted thing disappeared, like it had a mind of its own or something."
Disappeared by itself? Raven blinked. This is odd. But then again, that book is the source of what Vicki calls 'some seriously bad mojo'. It's a big evil magic thing, so maybe it can do that. Maybe the book can't be destroyed. "Do you want us to keep an eye out for anything unusual?"
"That would be appreciated, Raven." Hawk responded.
"I'll let the kids know." Raven nodded.
"Thank you, Raven. Hawk out." Hawk ended the connection. At that moment, Raven noticed a sign that had "Welcome to Redstone" on it. The Native American woman smiled gratefully. She wanted to stop and get something to eat. She eagerly grabbed a microphone attached to the dashboard and pressed a button.
"Hey, kids! We've finally arrived at Redstone! Our next stop is at the nearest gas station to get fueled up! As soon as we stop, I got a call from General Hawk, it's very important. Thank you." A few minutes later, the Southside Rockers' bus pulled up to a gas station. Raven unbuckled herself and left the cab. She entered the main area of the bus and noticed the Southside Misfits all gathered up.
"This better be good." A tall muscular African-American teenager with five o'clock shadow and dreadlocks, snorted. He was dressed all in black: biker gloves, boots, leather pants, and sleeveless t-shirt. He was the Southside Rockers' drummer: Eric Phillips, aka Trouble. Blessed by his X-Gene with superhuman strength and invulnerability, Eric got his codename because of his temper (and famously foul mouth) getting him constantly into trouble.
"Are we there yet?" A red-headed girl of Asian heritage blinked, looking up from a Nintendo DS she was playing with. Lisa Blaze, aka Fyre, was one of the Southsiders' keyboardists. She was of Irish and Cambodian heritage, and somewhat crazy. She had flight and pyrokinetic powers, and had a big crush on the East Coast Misfit known as Pyro. "I'm bored."
"Yes, we're there." Raven sighed. "Now listen, Southsiders. I just got a call from General Hawk."
"How's he doing?" Jenni smiled. "How're the East Coasters?"
"I'm sure they're fine." Raven answered politely. "You guys remember that incident with Abdul Alhazred and the Necronomicon, right?"
"Goddess, don't remind me." Vicki shivered. "That book scared the heebie-jeebies out of me. The bad mojo from that book..." The dark-haired guitarist and luck manipulator shuddered. "If I never see that damn thing again, it'll be too soon."
"Yeah, well..." The Joe pilot sighed as she tried to break the news. "The Necronomicon's gone. Vanished. Airtight at the Pit had been trying to find a way to destroy the book, but it disappeared." The Southsiders gasped and chattered.
"Oh, no!" Jenni gasped.
"Aww, damn!" Eric groaned, lightly thumping a chair in disbelief.
"Oh, Goddess..." Vicki moaned.
"I'm sorry." Raven sighed. "But we shouldn't let this get us down. Hawk has advised all the Misfit teams to keep an eye out, and I'm sure the other teams alerted the other heroes."
"Shouldn't we call Ash and let him know?" Jason frowned in concern, crossing his arms.
"How?" Mike asked. "The guy's in Aruba, and we don't have his number. Not to mention he doesn't own a cell phone."
"He got a weird hatred for those things." Mike shook his head.
"I don't blame him." Lisa winced. "Aliens can use those to find people to abduct." The other Southsiders rolled their eyes at Lisa's goofy statement.
"And knowing Ash, he's probably gotten himself into his own trouble." Raven finished.
Aruba
CRASH!
"Ahhh!" Ash Williams grunted as he flew through the wall of the bar. "Ugh..." The Chosen One grunted as he got to his feet, rubbing his head. "That's gonna leave a mark..."
"GRARGH!" The green monster roared as it smashed its way through the wall after Ash. The dark-haired supermarket worker grinned evilly.
"Come on, ya big stupid ugly jackass!" Ash snapped, his prosthetic morphing back into its chainsaw mode. With a mental command, the chainsaw started up. Now, normally, a chainsaw's whirring blades and engine would make a recognizable, if not very loud noise. But this prosthetic's chainsaw mode had a silent running feature, reducing the noise down to an almost pleasant-sounding hum. Ash couldn't help but smirk. Gotta give that Johnny B kid credit. He thinks of everything. The supermarket worker barely dodged the monster's claws. "Yeow! Gotta watch that! Nearly lost my head!"
"GARRRGH!" The monster roared.
Redstone
"You know what?" Jenni waved her hands as she got up from her seat. "Let's not let this get us down. Yeah, the Necronomicon is dangerous, but there's nothing we can do about it now. It'll turn up. And if it does, I'm sure that somebody can deal with it. All we can do is keep an eye out until it turns up again." Jason nodded in agreement.
"Jenni's right." He admitted with a sigh. "Look, all we can do now is just play the gig and keep an eye out for the book."
"That shouldn't be too hard." Mike quipped. "Just notice when people start walking out of cemeteries with dirt falling off them."
Well, well, well! Looks like our heroes are getting ready to run into disaster! What insanity will happen next? Who did that ceremony in the cemetery? Are the citizens of Redstone insane? Find out in the next chapter! Suggestions needed badly!
1 – See "Zombies in Chicago"
